MIPS Assembly Language

Programming
ICS 233
Computer Architecture and Assembly Language
Dr. Aiman El-Maleh
College of Computer Sciences and Engineering
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
[Adapted from slides of Dr. M. Mudawar, ICS 233, KFUPM]
 Outline
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 2
 Assembly Language Statements
 Three types of statements in assembly language
 Typically, one statement should appear on a line
1. Executable Instructions
 Generate machine code for the processor to execute at runtime
 Instructions tell the processor what to do
2. Pseudo-Instructions and Macros
 Translated by the assembler into real instructions
 Simplify the programmer task
3. Assembler Directives
 Provide information to the assembler while translating a program
 Used to define segments, allocate memory variables, etc.
 Non-executable: directives are not part of the instruction set
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 3
 Instructions
 Assembly language instructions have the format:
[label:] mnemonic [operands] [#comment]
 Label: (optional)
 Marks the address of a memory location, must have a colon
 Typically appear in data and text segments
 Mnemonic
 Identifies the operation (e.g. add, sub, etc.)
 Operands
 Specify the data required by the operation
 Operands can be registers, memory variables, or constants
 Most instructions have three operands
L1: addiu $t0, $t0, 1 #increment $t0
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 4
 Comments
 Comments are very important!
 Explain the program's purpose

 When it was written, revised, and by whom

 Explain data used in the program, input, and output

 Explain instruction sequences and algorithms used

 Comments are also required at the beginning of every procedure

 Indicate input parameters and results of a procedure

 Describe what the procedure does

 Single-line comment
 Begins with a hash symbol # and terminates at end of line
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 5
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 6
 Program Template
# Title: Filename:
# Author: Date:
# Description:
# Input:
# Output:
################# Data segment #####################
.data
. . .
################# Code segment #####################
.text
.globl main
main: # main program entry
. . .
li $v0, 10 # Exit program
syscall
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 7
 .DATA, .TEXT, & .GLOBL Directives
 .DATA directive
 Defines the data segment of a program containing data
 The program's variables should be defined under this directive
 Assembler will allocate and initialize the storage of variables

 .TEXT directive
 Defines the code segment of a program containing instructions

 .GLOBL directive
 Declares a symbol as global
 Global symbols can be referenced from other files
 We use this directive to declare main procedure of a program
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 8
 Layout of a Program in Memory
0x7FFFFFFF
Stack Segment Stack Grows
Downwards

Memory
Addresses
in Hex
Dynamic Area
Data Segment
Static Area
0x10000000

Text Segment
0x04000000
Reserved
0
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 9
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 10
 Data Definition Statement
 Sets aside storage in memory for a variable
 May optionally assign a name (label) to the data
 Syntax:

[name:] directive initializer [, initializer] . . .

var1: .WORD 10

 All initializers become binary data in memory

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 11
 Data Directives
 .BYTE Directive
 Stores the list of values as 8-bit bytes

 .HALF Directive
 Stores the list as 16-bit values aligned on half-word boundary

 .WORD Directive
 Stores the list as 32-bit values aligned on a word boundary

 .WORD w:n Directive

 Stores the 32-bit value w into n consecutive words aligned on a
word boundary.

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 12
 Data Directives
 .FLOAT Directive
 Stores the listed values as single-precision floating point

 .DOUBLE Directive
 Stores the listed values as double-precision floating point

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 13
 String Directives
 .ASCII Directive
 Allocates a sequence of bytes for an ASCII string

 .ASCIIZ Directive
 Same as .ASCII directive, but adds a NULL char at end of string

 Strings are null-terminated, as in the C programming language

 .SPACE n Directive
 Allocates space of n uninitialized bytes in the data segment

 Special characters in strings follow C convention

 Newline: \n Tab:\t Quote: \”
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 14
 Examples of Data Definitions
.DATA
var1: .BYTE 'A', 'E', 127, -1, '\n'
var2: .HALF -10, 0xffff
var3: .WORD 0x12345678
If the initial value exceeds
Var4: .WORD 0:10 the maximum size, an error
is reported by assembler
var5: .FLOAT 12.3, -0.1
var6: .DOUBLE 1.5e-10
str1: .ASCII "A String\n"
str2: .ASCIIZ "NULL Terminated String"
array: .SPACE 100

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 15
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 16
 Memory Alignment
 Memory is viewed as an array of bytes with addresses
 Byte Addressing: address points to a byte in memory

 Words occupy 4 consecutive bytes in memory

Memory
 MIPS instructions and integers occupy 4 bytes

address
...
 Alignment: address is a multiple of size aligned word

12 not aligned
 Word address should be a multiple of 4
8

 Least significant 2 bits of address should be 00 4

0 not aligned
 Halfword address should be a multiple of 2

 .ALIGN n directive
 Aligns the next data definition on a 2n byte boundary
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 17
 Symbol Table
 Assembler builds a symbol table for labels (variables)
 Assembler computes the address of each label in data segment

 Example Symbol Table

.DATA Label Address
var1: .BYTE 1, 2,'Z'
var1 0x10010000
str1: .ASCIIZ "My String\n"
str1 0x10010003
var2: .WORD 0x12345678
var2 0x10010010
.ALIGN 3
var3 0x10010018
var3: .HALF 1000
var str1
1
0x10010000 1 2 'Z' 'M' 'y' ' ' 'S' 't' 'r' 'i' 'n' 'g' '\n' 0 0 0 Unused
0x10010010 0x12345678 0 0 0 0 1000 0 0 0 0 0 0
var2 (aligned) Unused var3 (address is multiple of 8)
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 18
 Byte Ordering and Endianness
 Processors can order bytes within a word in two ways
 Little Endian Byte Ordering
 Memory address = Address of least significant byte
 Example: Intel IA-32, Alpha
MSB LSB address a a+1 a+2 a+3
Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . . Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 . . .
32-bit Register Memory

 Big Endian Byte Ordering

 Memory address = Address of most significant byte
 Example: SPARC, PA-RISC
MSB LSB address a a+1 a+2 a+3
Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . . Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . .
32-bit Register Memory

 MIPS can operate with both byte orderings

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 19
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 20
 System Calls
 Programs do input/output through system calls
 MIPS provides a special syscall instruction
 To obtain services from the operating system
 Many services are provided in the SPIM and MARS simulators

 Using the syscall system services

 Load the service number in register $v0
 Load argument values, if any, in registers $a0, $a1, etc.
 Issue the syscall instruction
 Retrieve return values, if any, from result registers

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 21
 Syscall Services
Service $v0 Arguments / Result
Print Integer 1 $a0 = integer value to print
Print Float 2 $f12 = float value to print
Print Double 3 $f12 = double value to print
Print String 4 $a0 = address of null-terminated string
Read Integer 5 $v0 = integer read
Read Float 6 $f0 = float read
Read Double 7 $f0 = double read
Read String 8 $a0 = address of input buffer
$a1 = maximum number of characters to read
Exit Program 10
Print Char 11 $a0 = character to print
Supported by MARS
Read Char 12 $a0 = character read
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 22
 Reading and Printing an Integer
################# Code segment #####################
.text
.globl main
main: # main program entry
li $v0, 5 # Read integer
syscall # $v0 = value read

move $a0, $v0 # $a0 = value to print

li $v0, 1 # Print integer
syscall

li $v0, 10 # Exit program

syscall

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 23
 Reading and Printing a String
################# Data segment #####################
.data
str: .space 10 # array of 10 bytes
################# Code segment #####################
.text
.globl main
main: # main program entry
la $a0, str # $a0 = address of str
li $a1, 10 # $a1 = max string length
li $v0, 8 # read string
syscall
li $v0, 4 # Print string str
syscall
li $v0, 10 # Exit program
syscall
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 24
 Program 1: Sum of Three Integers
# Sum of three integers
#
# Objective: Computes the sum of three integers.
# Input: Requests three numbers.
# Output: Outputs the sum.
################### Data segment ###################
.data
prompt: .asciiz "Please enter three numbers: \n"
sum_msg: .asciiz "The sum is: "
################### Code segment ###################
.text
.globl main
main:
la $a0,prompt # display prompt string
li $v0,4
syscall
li $v0,5 # read 1st integer into $t0
syscall
move $t0,$v0
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 25
Sum of Three Integers – Slide 2 of 2
li $v0,5 # read 2nd integer into $t1
syscall
move $t1,$v0
li $v0,5 # read 3rd integer into $t2
syscall
move $t2,$v0
addu $t0,$t0,$t1 # accumulate the sum
addu $t0,$t0,$t2
la $a0,sum_msg # write sum message
li $v0,4
syscall
move $a0,$t0 # output sum
li $v0,1
syscall
li $v0,10 # exit
syscall

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 26
 Program 2: Case Conversion
# Objective: Convert lowercase letters to uppercase
# Input: Requests a character string from the user.
# Output: Prints the input string in uppercase.
################### Data segment #####################
.data
name_prompt: .asciiz "Please type your name: "
out_msg: .asciiz "Your name in capitals is: "
in_name: .space 31 # space for input string
################### Code segment #####################
.text
.globl main
main:
la $a0,name_prompt # print prompt string
li $v0,4
syscall
la $a0,in_name # read the input string
li $a1,31 # at most 30 chars + 1 null char
li $v0,8
syscall
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 27
 Case Conversion – Slide 2 of 2
la $a0,out_msg # write output message
li $v0,4
syscall
la $t0,in_name
loop:
lb $t1,($t0)
beqz $t1,exit_loop # if NULL, we are done
blt $t1,'a',no_change
bgt $t1,'z',no_change
addiu $t1,$t1,-32 # convert to uppercase: 'A'-'a'=-32
sb $t1,($t0)
no_change:
addiu $t0,$t0,1 # increment pointer
j loop
exit_loop:
la $a0,in_name # output converted string
li $v0,4
syscall
li $v0,10 # exit
syscall

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 28
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 29
 Procedures
 Consider the following swap procedure (written in C)
 Translate this procedure to MIPS assembly language
void swap(int v[], int k)
{ int temp;
temp = v[k]
swap:
v[k] = v[k+1];
sll $t0,$a1,2 # $t0=k*4
v[k+1] = temp;
} add $t0,$t0,$a0 # $t0=v+k*4
lw $t1,0($t0) # $t1=v[k]
Parameters: lw $t2,4($t0) # $t2=v[k+1]
$a0 = Address of v[] sw $t2,0($t0) # v[k]=$t2
$a1 = k, and sw $t1,4($t0) # v[k+1]=$t1
Return address is in $ra jr $ra # return
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 30
 Call / Return Sequence
 Suppose we call procedure swap as: swap(a,10)
 Pass address of array a and 10 as arguments
 Call the procedure swap saving return address in $31 = $ra
 Execute procedure swap
 Return control to the point of origin (return address)
swap:
Registers
sll $t0,$a1,2
. . . Caller
add $t0,$t0,$a0
$a0=$4 addr a la $a0, a lw $t1,0($t0)
$a1=$5 10 li $a1, 10 lw $t2,4($t0)
jal swap sw $t2,0($t0)
. . .
# return here sw $t1,4($t0)
$ra=$31 ret addr . . . jr $ra
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 31
 Details of JAL and JR
Address Instructions Assembly Language
Pseudo-Direct
00400020 lui $1, 0x1001 la $a0, a Addressing
00400024 ori $4, $1, 0
00400028 ori $5, $0, 10 li $a1,10 PC = imm26<<2
0040002C jal 0x10000f jal swap 0x10000f << 2
00400030 . . . # return here = 0x0040003C

swap: $31 0x00400030

0040003C sll $8, $5, 2 sll $t0,$a1,2
00400040 add $8, $8, $4 add $t0,$t0,$a0 Register $31
00400044 lw $9, 0($8) lw $t1,0($t0) is the return
00400048 lw $10,4($8) lw $t2,4($t0) address register
0040004C sw $10,0($8) sw $t2,0($t0)
00400050 sw $9, 4($8) sw $t1,4($t0)
00400054 jr $31 jr $ra
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 32
 Instructions for Procedures
 JAL (Jump-and-Link) used as the call instruction
 Save return address in $ra = PC+4 and jump to procedure
 Register $ra = $31 is used by JAL as the return address
 JR (Jump Register) used to return from a procedure
 Jump to instruction whose address is in register Rs (PC = Rs)
 JALR (Jump-and-Link Register)
 Save return address in Rd = PC+4, and
 Jump to procedure whose address is in register Rs (PC = Rs)
 Can be used to call methods (addresses known only at runtime)
Instruction Meaning Format
jal label $31=PC+4, jump op6 = 3 imm26
jr Rs PC = Rs op6 = 0 rs5 0 0 0 8
jalr Rd, Rs Rd=PC+4, PC=Rs op6 = 0 rs5 0 rd5 0 9
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 33
 Next . . .
 Assembly Language Statements

 Assembly Language Program Template

 Defining Data

 Memory Alignment and Byte Ordering

 System Calls

 Procedures

 Parameter Passing and the Runtime Stack

MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM

© Muhamed Mudawar slide 34
 Parameter Passing
 Parameter passing in assembly language is different
 More complicated than that used in a high-level language
 In assembly language
 Place all required parameters in an accessible storage area
 Then call the procedure
 Two types of storage areas used
 Registers: general-purpose registers are used (register method)
 Memory: stack is used (stack method)
 Two common mechanisms of parameter passing
 Pass-by-value: parameter value is passed
 Pass-by-reference: address of parameter is passed
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 35
 Parameter Passing – cont'd
 By convention, registers are used for parameter passing
 $a0 = $4 .. $a3 = $7 are used for passing arguments
 $v0 = $2 .. $v1 = $3 are used for result values
 Additional arguments/results can be placed on the stack
 Runtime stack is also needed to …
 Store variables / data structures when they cannot fit in registers
 Save and restore registers across procedure calls
 Implement recursion
 Runtime stack is implemented via software convention
 The stack pointer $sp = $29 (points to top of stack)
 The frame pointer $fp = $30 (points to a procedure frame)
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 36
 Stack Frame
 Stack frame is the segment of the stack containing …
 Saved arguments, registers, and local data structures (if any)
 Called also the activation frame or activation record
 Frames are pushed and popped by adjusting …
 Stack pointer $sp = $29 and Frame pointer $fp = $30
 Decrement $sp to allocate stack frame, and increment to free
$fp
Stack Stack Stack arguments
f calls g

$fp $fp
saved $ra
Frame f() Frame f() Frame f()
g returns
$sp
$fp
$sp saved
↓ Frame g() ↑ registers
$sp
local data
stack grows allocate free stack structures
downwards stack frame frame or variables
$sp
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 37
 Preserving Registers
 Need to preserve registers across a procedure call
 Stack can be used to preserve register values

 Which registers should be saved?

 Registers modified by the called procedure, and
 Still used by the calling procedure

 Who should preserve the registers?

 Called Procedure: preferred method for modular code
 Register preservation is done inside the called procedure

 By convention, registers $s0, $s1, …, $s7 should be preserved

 Also, registers $sp, $fp, and $ra should also be preserved
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 38
 Selection Sort
Array Array Array Array
first first first first

max max value max last value

last
last last last value last max value max value

Unsorted Locate Swap Max Decrement

Max with Last Last
 Example

first 3 3 first 3 3 max

first 3 2 max
first 2 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 last 1 2
max 5 4 max 4 2 last 2 3 3 3
2 2 last 2 4 4 4 4 4
last 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 39
 Selection Sort Procedure
# Objective: Sort array using selection sort algorithm
# Input: $a0 = pointer to first, $a1 = pointer to last
# Output: array is sorted in place
##########################################################
sort: addiu $sp, $sp, -4 # allocate one word on stack
sw $ra, 0($sp) # save return address on
stack
top: jal max # call max procedure
lw $t0, 0($a1) # $t0 = last value
sw $t0, 0($v0) # swap last and max values
sw $v1, 0($a1)
addiu $a1, $a1, -4 # decrement pointer to last
bne $a0, $a1, top # more elements to sort
lw $ra, 0($sp) # pop return address
addiu $sp, $sp, 4
jr $ra # return to caller
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 40
 Max Procedure
# Objective: Find the address and value of maximum element
# Input: $a0 = pointer to first, $a1 = pointer to last
# Output: $v0 = pointer to max, $v1 = value of max
##########################################################
max: move $v0, $a0 # max pointer = first
pointer
lw $v1, 0($v0) # $v1 = first value
beq $a0, $a1, ret # if (first == last) return
move $t0, $a0 # $t0 = array pointer
loop: addi $t0, $t0, 4 # point to next array
element
lw $t1, 0($t0) # $t1 = value of A[i]
ble $t1, $v1, skip # if (A[i] <= max) then skip
move $v0, $t0 # found new maximum
move $v1, $t1
skip: bne $t0, $a1, loop # loop back if more elements
ret: jr
MIPS Assembly Language Programming
$ra ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 41
 Example of a Recursive Procedure
int fact(int n) { if (n<2) return 1; else return (n*fact(n-1)); }
fact: slti $t0,$a0,2 # (n<2)?
beq $t0,$0,else # if false branch to else
li $v0,1 # $v0 = 1
jr $ra # return to caller
else: addiu $sp,$sp,-8 # allocate 2 words on
stack
sw $a0,4($sp) # save argument n
sw $ra,0($sp) # save return address
addiu $a0,$a0,-1 # argument = n-1
jal fact # call fact(n-1)
lw $a0,4($sp) # restore argument
lw $ra,0($sp) # restore return address
mul $v0,$a0,$v0 # $v0 = n*fact(n-1)
addi $sp,$sp,8 # free stack frame
jr $ra # return to caller
MIPS Assembly Language Programming ICS 233 – KFUPM
© Muhamed Mudawar slide 42